About Us

Dr. Leanne Field is a clinical professor at The University of Texas at Austin, and the director of the Public Health and Medical Laboratory Science Programs in the College of Natural Sciences. Dr. Field holds an appointment as an adjunct associate professor of public health at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, School of Public Health, and she is a faculty affiliate of UT Austin's Center for Health Communications, Moody College of Communication. 

Dr. Field received her B.A. degree from Florida State University, her M.S. degree from the University of Georgia, and her Ph.D. from UT Austin. Since joining the UT Austin faculty, she has developed multiple academic programs for the university, and has been honored with several prestigious teaching awards, including The University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award (2010) and the President's Associates Teaching Excellence Award (2013). 

Dr. Field has been the recipient of multiple grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and in April 2010, she received $2.77 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology as part of the Professional University Resources and Education for Health Information Technology (PURE-HIT) consortium project. She led a team of faculty and staff in the development of three post-baccalaureate certificate programs in the disciplines of health informatics and health IT and public health informatics that were delivered over a three-year period. One of these programs, an innovative nine-week post-baccalaureate program leading to a certificate in Health Informatics and Health IT (HIHIT), was re-located to the McCombs School of Business in December 2017.  

Since July 2010, more than 1200 students have graduated from the HIHIT Professional Education Program, and 96% of graduates seeking health IT jobs have secured positions with 143 organizations nationwide. With generous support from more than 75 health IT industry partners and healthcare organizations, Dr. Field created a unique HIHIT Learning Center that includes a classroom and a clinic that models the healthcare continuum of care. She received a grant from the university's Longhorn Innovation Fund for Technology in 2011 to create a one-of-a kind Health Information Exchange (HIE) laboratory which provides students with opportunities to experience interoperability first-hand as they transfer simulated medical records through an HIE between two virtual physician practices. In the rich technological environment of the Learning Center, students have opportunities to gain hands-on experience with multiple EHRs and a state-of-the-art HIE software system, carry out workflow process redesign, learn HL-7 message creation, and use Microsoft SQL, Access, and Tableau to perform data analytics exercises in a simulated accountable care organization.  

Dr. Field has led the expansion of the HIHIT Program to three locations: in Austin at the McCombs School of Business, and two distance education sites - one at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (2013) and a second, at the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Hood (2017). As a member of the Fort Hood Army Career Skills Development Program, the HIHIT Program is providing health informatics and health IT education to college-educated, transitioning soldiers, with the goal of preparing them for civilian careers in Health IT. It is an honor for Dr. Field and the entire HIHIT Team to develop and deliver educational programming to those who have served our country. 

In addition to directing the HIHIT Professional Education Program, Dr. Field leads the faculty and affiliate faculty in the HIHIT Program as they engage in innovation and research. Research projects have included the development of a simulated, teaching electronic health record for the Dell Medical School Curriculum in collaboration with Dell Med faculty; the creation of innovative healthcare apps using the latest Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards; and a recent partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas to analyze their healthcare data to understand the causal factors of opioid addiction in Texas. Dr. Field's also carries out research in public health informatics with multiple federal, state, and local public health partners. Recent examples include partnering with the CDC's Public Health Informatics Fellowship Program to carry out a first-in-the-nation pilot of their I-Scale initiative, co-hosting an International Social Media Conference with Texas Tech University School of Nursing, leading a FHIR-based app design challenge to improve physicians' understanding of the patients' story, and mapping Zika Virus diagnostic workflows at the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Betty Wu Adams is a Director of OurCrowd, a leading global equity crowdfunding and venture capital firm focusing on early-stage tech startups. Betty has held executive positions in the public and private sectors, including Commissioner of the New York City Department of Employment; Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services; Adjunct Professor at Columbia University; Business Development for Bloomberg LP and other financial services firms both in Asia Pacific and the United States. She is a board member of The Disability Opportunity Fund in New York.

Joshua B. Barbour (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an assistant professor of communication studies at The University of Texas at Austin, and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Health Communication, a collaboration between the Moody College of Communication and Dell Medical School. He is a faculty affiliate and research collaborator in the Health Informatics and Health IT Program, McCombs School of Business. 

Dr. Barbour's research investigates how societal structures create and complicate organizational problems and how those problems can be addressed in and through communication. His research is concerned with how organizations manage information and make meaning and how research can empower the (re)design of communication to help them do so with more sophistication. 
His current and past projects include engaged scholarship at a toxic waste storage facility, in nuclear power plants, with disaster preparation groups, and in healthcare organizations, settings where communication has important effects and can be a key site of intervention. 

His current research focuses on understanding the communicative difficulties of data-intensive work in, for example, analytics and automation and developing theory of organizational communication design. His work has appeared in Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Communication Theory, the Journal of Health Communication, the Journal of Applied Communication Research, the Journal of Communication, and Management Communication Quarterly.

Sriram Bharadwaj (Sri) is COO, Business Strategix Inc and has over 25 years of Information Management Systems experience in multiple industries including healthcare. Sri is a recognized expert in Healthcare Cybersecurity and has held many leadership positions in health plans and provider organizations. Prior to his current work at a leading academic medical center in Southern California, Sri consulted with Integrated Delivery Network (IDNs) around ACO, HIE and Clinical integration. Sri has expertise in Applications Development, Enterprise-wide IT Infrastructure and Operations. Sri is well known for his process knowledge delivering performance improvements in multiple industries during his long tenure with Deloitte in various parts of the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA region. Sri also has expertise building products for customers through his earlier involvement with SAP AG (an ERP vendor).

Sri is a CHCIO, CPHIMS, PMP, CISSP, Chartered Global Management Accountant (FCGMA)(U.K), Professional, Academy of Healthcare Management (PAHM), and a Six Sigma Black Belt from the American Society of Quality. Sri has served as co-chairs of the Southern California CIO Conference and as the Chair of Southern California Privacy and Security Forum, Southern California HIMSS. Sri was also Chair, Privacy and Security Committee, National HIMSS. Sri has been on the Southern California HIMSS Board for many years and also is involved with the HIMSS Interoperability and Standards Workgroup, Patient Engagement Workgroup providing thought leadership and opinion on various matters around patient engagement, interoperability, healthcare legislation, privacy and security.

Dr. Fonseca is a physician-leader who is a faculty affiliate, program advisor and research collaborator with the Health Informatics and Health IT Program, McCombs School of Business. He is a fellow in the American College of Preventive Medicine, board-certified in Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and in the sub-specialty of Clinical Informatics with more than 25 years of experience. He also is certified as a Lifestyle Medicine Physician by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Fonseca is an adjunct professor in the School of Human Ecology, Public Health Program, College of Natural Sciences. He received his M.D. from Boston University, a Master of Public Health in quantitative methods from Harvard University, and a B.A .in psychology from Rice University.

Dr. Fonseca is currently an associate professor at the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine. Formerly, he was the director of medical informatics at Intellica Corporation, a custom clinical decision support software development business. He served as the Texas State Epidemiologist, a senior executive of an organization with a $2.7 billion annual budget and 12,000 employees. Before working for the Texas Department of State Health Services, he spent nine years at the Headquarters of the Air Force Medical Service and eight years in the Army. His expertise is in medical informatics, clinical quality improvement, community health assessment and improvement, health services research, worksite wellness, preventive medicine and public health.

Dr. Fonseca also serves as the medical advisor for HASA, the San Antonio-based health information exchange for the San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Corpus Christi areas. Additionally, Dr. Fonseca serves on the American Heart Association's Workplace Health Steering Committee, the Texas Medical Association's Council on Science and Public Health, and the Bexar County Medical Society's Board of Directors. 

George Gooch is the Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Health Services Authority (THSA), a quasi-governmental state agency responsible for the secure exchange of electronic health information in the State of Texas. Prior to becoming CEO, George served as the THSA’s Director of Policy & Planning.

George got his start in public policy by serving as a health policy analyst for the Texas Senate Committee on Health & Human Services. George is a healthcare compliance attorney who specializes in data privacy. He holds certifications in information privacy and healthcare privacy compliance from the Health Care Compliance Association and the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Georgelives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Nadya Prociuk, PhD.

Clyde Hewitt is vice president of security strategy at CynergisTek. He brings more than thirty years of executive leadership experience in cybersecurity to his position with CynergisTek, where his many responsibilities include being the senior security advisor and client executive, thought leader and developer of strategic direction for information and cybersecurity services, nationwide business development lead for security services, and contributor to CynergisTek’s industry outreach and educational events.

Hewitt retired from the United States Air Force after serving in various senior IT technology positions, later working in the private sector in various information security management roles. While in the military, he was a Professor of Program Management at the Defense Systems Management College (Defense Acquisition University) teaching post-graduate software acquisition management courses. Most recently, he was the Vice President & Chief Security Officer for Allscripts Healthcare where he implemented a global ISO 27001 Information Security Management System. Hewitt’s firsthand executive experience developing, implementing, and evaluating security program strategy provides him with the practical experience to contribute to CynergisTek’s thought leadership around cybersecurity and assist clients in achieving their data protection goals.

Hewitt holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Arkansas, and is a graduate of the Defense Acquisition University’s Program Management Course. He is also a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College. Hewitt’s professional certifications include Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, Level III Program Manager, and Certified in Healthcare Security (CHS).

Mr. Honn has 30 plus years of clinical, technical, consulting and operations experience in the healthcare and governmental agency arenas. During this tenure, Mr. Honn worked with numerous national health systems, consulting firms and state-level agencies providing advisory, process improvement, operational and executive leadership services. Recently, Mr. Honn founded The Honn Advisory Group. His firm focuses on healthcare and governmental agency clients’ strategic planning, outsourcing, acquisition, merger and divestiture planning and operational process improvement needs. Mr. Honn’s involvement with The University of Texas’ HIHIT program began since shortly after its inception in 2010. Mr. Honn holds his Masters in Science degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and currently resides in Austin, TX with his wife, Caroline.

Mr. Ligon is a faculty member and researcher in the Health Informatics and Health IT Program, McCombs School of Business. He teaches the course Project Management, Workflow Redesign and Quality Improvement and co-teaches the courses Introduction to Informatics, and Fundamentals in Health IT in the HIHIT Program. Before joining the faculty at UT Austin, he was the director of Health Information technology at TMF Health Quality Institute, the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for Texas. He was part of the core team that developed the Regional Extension Centers proposals for Texas and oversaw a team of consultants who provided technical assistance to over 300 physician practices adopting EHRs. Prior to his work with the QIO, Mr. Ligon served as the CIO for one of the largest cardiovascular practices in the country where he also taught an introductory course in Biostatistics at Southern Illinois Medical School. He also served for 10 years as the director of cardiovascular clinical research and informatics at a large Midwestern hospital facility. 
Mr. Ligon holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Houston and a Master's in Psychology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He also has earned a degree in Advanced Respiratory Care. He holds a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute and a CPHIMS certification from the Health Information Management Systems Society. Mr. Ligon has authored or co-authored over 60 articles in peer reviewed journals. His areas of specialization are workflow and process redesign, project management and quality improvement as well as EHR selection, implementation and optimization.

Dr. Fernando Martinez is an accomplished Healthcare Executive and Technologist who has worked with some of the largest healthcare systems in the country. Dr. Martinez is a recognized technology and operations expert with a history of developing innovative and transformational strategies for organizations of all sizes. 

His experience spans a variety of healthcare settings including academic medicine, county and government systems, public sector healthcare, private non-profit, faith-based systems and foreign territories / governments. Dr. Martinez has dual roles at the Texas Hospital Association serving as a corporate Senior Vice President / Chief Digital Officer and is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Hospital Association Foundation. Prior to coming to the Texas Hospital Association Dr. Martinez worked with the Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, Texas where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Prior to Parkland Dr. Martinez served as CIO for the Jackson Health System in Miami Florida, a five hospital, public-sector safety-net five hospital system.

Dr. Martinez has earned industry recognition for his work, most recently as the 2017 CHIME CIO Innovator of the Year. He was previously recognized as the 2012 Technology Executive of the Year for South Florida and the 2009 Information Security Executive of the Year (ISE) Award Winner. He has published numerous articles focused on management, technology strategy, IT security and governance, is a frequent speaker at national IT meetings on technology and is a Faculty member of Graduate Healthcare Management Programs for the Chapman School of Business at Florida International University. He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in Information Technology with concentrations in information security and has an earned PhD in Educational Leadership and Organization.

Awards and Professional Recognition:

2017 CIO Innovator of the Year, CHIME

2012 Technology Executive of the Year, South Florida

2009 Information Security Executive of the Year, Southeastern U.S.
FHIMSS – Fellow, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
CHCIO-Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer

CISSP- Certified Information Systems Security Professional
CISA- Certified Information Systems Auditor
CISM- Certified Information Security Manager
CGEIT-Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT

Professional Affiliations:
ACHE – American College of Healthcare Executives

HIMSS – Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

CHIME – College of Healthcare Information Management Executives

(ISC)2 – International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium
ISACA – Information Systems Audit and Control Association
Board of Directors, South Florida chapter ISACA (2007-2015)
Board of Directors, South Florida chapter HIMSS (2009-2012)

Richard Nauert, Ph.D, M.H.A., PT, is a clinical associate professor and researcher who teaches the course Operational Models of Healthcare Systems and co-teaches the course, Fundamentals of Health Information Technology in the HIHIT Program. He also teaches a course in Health Policy and Health Systems for undergraduate public health majors in the UT Austin, College of Natural Sciences, as well as a hybrid online doctoral class on population health. His research interests and publications have focused on telehealth and disease management, telemedicine, electronic health records, health information technology in post-acute settings, population health, health administration and health education.

Dr. Nauert has served in clinical, administrative and academic healthcare settings for 40 years. He began his career as a hospital-based clinical physical therapist, then after four years, transitioned into the post-acute care environment where he advanced into management and administration. He was the regional manager for a private, then publicly traded, multi-disciplinary Medicare-Certified Rehabilitation Agency for over 15 years. In this role, he was responsible for planning and managing all clinical and administrative operations in five out-patient clinics and for over 100 contract relationships in a 12-county area of Central Texas. His duties included fiscally responsible financial management and continual efficient and compliant operational performance in each practice setting. His responsibilities included patient communication, personnel management, insurance coding and billing, medical records management, appointment scheduling and overall office operations.  

For the past 18 years, Dr. Nauert has been in academia while also being an operational consultant to several major health systems, health plans and home health agencies. He has graduate degrees in Health Promotion and Management (UNT), Healthcare Administration (Trinity) and a doctoral degree from The University of Texas at Austin. His doctoral research focused on information science, including health care informatics, health administration, health education and health policy. His dissertation explored online telehealth disease management among a vulnerable population to reduce cost and improve outcomes.   

Mr. Kent Nutt is the communications director for The Health Informatics and Health IT Program, McCombs School of Business.  Mr. Nutt is a marketing and communications professional with more than 25 years of experience in technology and nonprofit industries. He has worked in a wide range of technology startups, Fortune 500 companies, and a scientific non-profit.
 
Mr. Nutt began his career in the telecommunications division of Datapoint Corporation in San Antonio, Texas after graduating from The University of Texas at San Antonio. He was then recruited by Dataquest Corporation in San Jose, California as a telecommunications industry analyst and later joined his first technology startup, Aspect Telecommunications.

After a decade in Silicon Valley, Kent became the first marketing manager for DTM Corporation; an early 3D Printing company based In Austin, Texas. He held marketing management positions at IBM/Tivoli Corporation; Chicory Systems, acquired by Parthus Technologies; and Conformative Systems, acquired by Intel Corporation. 

In 2010 he became the first communications director for The Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas (TAMEST), an organization composed of the Texas-based members of the National Academies (National Academies of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences), the state's nine Nobel Laureates, and 18-member institutions. Kent began working as the communications director for The University of Texas at Austin Health Informatics and Health IT Program in 2012.

Tushar Patel is a principal consultant and founder of Shivish Inc., a professional learning and consulting company focused in the field of healthcare automation and information technology.  Over the past 29 years, Tushar has successfully executed technology related healthcare projects of various size and scope propelling client investments to their highest probability of success.

 

Tushar received his Bachelors of Pharmacy from University of Texas at Austin in 1989 and started his career as a pharmacist at Baptist Health System in San Antonio, Texas.  He then continued learning and gaining experience working as an Automation Consultant with McKesson Health, a Fortune 15 healthcare company.  While at McKesson Health, he participated in projects for over 250 hospitals and health care systems across the USA. Tushar also pursued his entrepreneurial passions successfully owning and operating multiple businesses building them from conception to steady state operations.  His education and experience has resulted in a successful career in the field of Pharmacy, Healthcare Operations, Information Technology and Automation.   

 

Julie Rennecker is the Chief Experience Officer at an Austin-based cyber risk management software company. Her background includes bedside clinical experience as an RN in ICU, ER, and behavioral health units before becoming an internal process improvement and change management consultant at a regional medical center. She then earned her doctorate in Organizational Behavior from MIT’s Sloan School of Management where she studied the intersection of organizational culture and technology change. She served on the Information Systems faculty at Case Western Reserve University before returning to the private sector and has continued to serve as a guest lecturer in nursing, management, and health IT programs at both the University of Texas at Austin and Case Western Reserve University.

With more than 20 years’ experience conducting research and advising executives in both technology and service delivery organizations, Julie brings a unique synthesis of clinical, academic, and industry experience to bear on the challenges of building cyber secure and cyber confident healthcare organizations. Her current projects focus on educating clinical leaders and staff on their role as the “human firewall” against cyber threats and data misuse and on facilitating better collaboration between clinical and IT leaders to develop a more holistic approach to cyber risk management.

Mark Steiger is an executive, lecturer and thought leader in the healthcare IT industry. Currently, Mark is the Director of Virtual Care and Innovation for Seton Healthcare Family where he leads telehealth efforts for Seton’s 11 Central Texas Hospitals and affiliated clinics. Mark previously held leadership roles at CommUnityCare, Austin Regional Clinic and Texas Medical Association. Mark is an active public speaker for the Texas Medical Association and other industry leaders . He holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

Steve Snyder is an attorney at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, where he is a member of the Cybersecurity and Privacy team.  Steve has industry experience as network engineer and worked extensively as a cyber risk manager serving clients in all sectors in both preventative measures and managing incident response.  Steve also served as CISO at a prior law firm and has designed and implemented cybersecurity training and educational materials.  He is well-published thought leader and frequent speaker on emerging data security and privacy issues with a particular interest in preparing future and current lawyers for practicing in the increasingly technically-complex legal environment.  Steve received his law degree, with Honors, from New York University School of Law in 2003 and has an undergraduate and graduate degree in engineering from Lehigh University.

Dr. Zach Varghese is a faculty affiliate and research collaborator in the Health Informatics and Health IT Program, McCombs School of Business. He brings clinical and business experience to his lectures in the course Fundamentals of Health IT and supports student learning in the Technology Competencies in Health Information Technology course.

After graduating from the McGovern Medical School at the UT Health Science Center at Houston, Dr. Varghese completed his internship with The UT Southwestern Medical Center's Austin residency training program (now affiliated with Dell Medical School). He responded to the significant challenge of tracking those indigent or mentally ill at his base hospital by deploying a self-designed, rudimentary electronic health record system. Case management time was cut significantly. Dr. Varghese consequently chose to pursue public health and health informatics, earning his Master of Public Health degree, and then training at the UT Health Informatics and Health IT Program. Upon graduation, Dr. Varghese was employed by the EHR vendor, e-MDs, and was promoted to chief medical officer. Dr. Varghese has taken his medical and Health IT experience to a third level, joining forces with a software design house to run an Austin area bespoke technology solutions firm.

Phyllis Bellon, B.S., is the administrative associate and financial administrator for the Health Informatics and Health IT Professional Education Program, McCombs School of Business. Ms. Bellon has a B.S. degree from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La. She has over 10 years of experience at The University of Texas at Austin, including staff positions in Computer Science, GCG-IC² Institute and the Health Informatics and IT Program at McCombs. Currently, her duties include supporting the director of the program, managing departmental services, and processing daily finances.